WELSH exam chiefs yesterday revealed some of the clever and bizarre cases from their 'cheats' file as they vowed to stamp out new sophisticated tricks.

WELSH exam chiefs yesterday revealed some of the clever and bizarre cases from their 'cheats' file as they vowed to stamp out new sophisticated tricks.

The move came on the heels of latest figures this week showed record numbers of Welsh students had been caught using their mobile phones to beat the system this year.

The Welsh Joint Education Committee announced a fivefold increase in GCSE pupils caught cheating this way, rising from five in 2002 to 29 this year.

But although they vowed to get even tougher on use of mobiles, the WJEC also revealed other recent instances in which they had caught out dishonest students.

The cases from their 'cheats file' included:

This year a pupil impersonated an exam officer. In a bid to include additional answers he wrote to the WJEC claiming that a candidate had not handed in all their papers , but he was rumbled when the exam board noticed the handwriting of the exam officer was the same as the candidate's.

Another candidate felt he would have a better chance of passing his exam if someone else were to impersonate him, so he got his older brother to sit it for him. He was caught.

At one school, 20 pupils were disqualified because of their behaviour at the end of the exam. The students were getting up and throwing things and one even overturned a table.

The exam board has had instances where mobiles have gone off in the middle of the exam. On one occasion a young lad's mother called him to see how the exam was going. As a result, he was automatically failed.

The problem with mobiles is not so common among A-level candidates as two were found to be carrying a phone last year, and just three this year.

But new rules mean that even if a phone is used during an exam as a calculator, students could fail the entire course they are sitting for.

The punishments now range from a warning, for carrying a phone, to an outright fail, for using a mobile.

Brian Rogers, assistant director of communications at the WJEC said it was using new malpractice rules more and more because cheating using mobile phones had become increasingly problematic.

"Phones can contain so much information now that it could be used or abused for cheating purposes," he said.

"It's not just because of cheating but because phones can be disruptive for other candidates.

"It's far more complicated now. Consequently the rules on mobile phones have been strengthened and we've had lots of cases where we've had to penalise candidates."

If a student is caught with information on their phone, they may be excluded from the whole subject.

"It's quite a serious offence. It is the head teacher's responsibility to ensure all candidates receive a warning at the beginning of every exam.

"It's not good enough just to have a sign up banning phones from the room."

Mobile phones in the classroom have become an increasing problem, and teachers often have to battle to enforce the rule that phones should not be on school premises, nor should not be used during lesson time.

Mr Rogers said, "The sad thing is there's an awful lot of pressure on students from parents and schools, but you can't condone this. You have to be fair to those who plough through the exams honestly.

"It's all part of maintaining the standards."

The board deals with around 60 to 70 malpractice complaints every year, which range from discipline to cheating.

"You would think the exam room is sacrosanct and everyone sits there silently until the end of the exam, but we do have extreme cases of bad behaviour.

"Disruption is the major one and attempting to talk at the end, or getting up and throwing things - we get the whole range.

"But it's important we maintain public confidence in the exam system and that people are aware that we do take action in these cases. It's an example then to the next generation of exam takers."

But it isn't only secondary schools and colleges that have seen an increase in the number of students using modern technology to cheat.

A study by Michael Dunn of the University of Derby, shows that 80% of the university students surveyed admitted to attempting to enhance their grade.

"There are lots of 'cheat sites' on the internet - things called paper mills that are fully searchable," said the senior lecturer at the university's Derbyshire Business School.

"You could tap in the word motivation, for example, and it would throw up hundreds of assignments, so students can just cut and paste. Many of these sites are free or don't cost very much.

"There is software available to try and track this down, but it is time consuming."

Some universities now feel pressurised to revert solely to exams as it is the only way to tell if students have done the work themselves. But that in turn places more pressure on students who may then turn to cheating in the exam.

Some students may look to enhance their grades simply by printing their essays in a larger font, so that it looks longer.

"I found that 80% of the students I questioned had cheated in some way and the honest students are resigned to it because they know it goes on.

"But there is a lot of pressure on students, especially as their parents are paying fees, which are likely to be increased soon. There are more students in the HE sector and more graduates in the job market with a 2:i, so students are increasingly trying more strategies.

ThinkSMS, a company that provides wireless business solutions to companies, suggests that schools beat cheats at their own game.

By sending each candidate a text message before the exam starts, the invigilator could listen out for a tell-tale ping to see who still has their phone switched on.

The latest LBS (location based services) systems can also pick up on the microwave signal that all phones transmit and show the searcher a localised map of the phone's location for those using the silent or vibrate option. This can narrow the culprit down to a matter of metres.

And if schools want to use mobile phones throughout the year, messages can be sent to pupils and parents to inform them if a class or meeting has been cancelled.